The Cabinet Clearance

round two — six batches from what survived the first six

Re-inventoried 30 August 2026 · 21 bottles · ~6.8 litres · down from 33 bottles and 18.3 L

Six batches came off the shelf in the first round — the Aviation, Chrysanthemum, Coco Loco, Night Cap Stinger, Old Pal and Fuzzy Manhattan. They took the gin, the bourbon, the vermouth and the Puntacana with them. What is left is mostly modifiers: liqueurs, schnapps and one very large bottle each of dark rum, white rum and vodka.

So round two is built differently. The three bulk bottles do the structural work, and each batch is designed to take one or more of the small bottles all the way to zero. Same rules as before: 750 ml per batch, no water, no citrus in the bottle.

Pull these out first

You asked which else should come out as sippers. Two clear yeses, one judgement call.

Definitely sippers

El Dorado 12 — a genuinely good aged Demerara. Batching it would be vandalism. ~300 ml left.
Calvados Morin — ~150 ml, which is two proper pours. Apple brandy after dinner is exactly what this is for, and there isn't enough left to batch anyway.
Plus the Porto and Siete Leguas you've already pulled.

Judgement calls

John L. Sullivan Irish — the only whiskey left in the house. Sip it, or put it in coffee with the Kahlúa. I have not batched it.
B&B — traditionally a neat digestif, and you could keep it. But it is the backbone of No. 1, and that batch is the best thing in this booklet. Your call.
Pastis — not a sipper exactly, but there is no vermouth left to batch it with. Drink it the French way: 25 ml pastis, 125 ml cold water, no ice until it clouds.

Three bottles have no batch and need none. The Campari (220 ml) and Aperol (135 ml) have lost their mixing partners — no gin, no vermouth — so put them out with prosecco and soda as a spritz station and they will be gone in an evening. That is the fastest remaining clearance in the cabinet.

Choose your batch

Six batches, 4.5 litres of finished cocktail, and between them they take two bottles to absolute zero and leave seven more with barely a splash.

No.	Batch	Tastes like	Yields	Keeps
Bitter & spirit-forward
01	Dark & Bénédictine	the last of the B&B, doing something serious	9 pours	6 months
Sour & citrus
02	Mai Tai Base	amaretto standing in for orgeat, as it should	10 drinks	6 months
04	Dover Bramble Base	one bottle instead of two purple ones	10 drinks	6 months
Rich & tropical
03	Coconut Daiquiri Base	finishes the Clément, and it is the good stuff	10 drinks	6 months
After dinner
05	The Beachcomber	four dying bottles, one bottle of dessert	10 pours	2 months
06	Bottled Peppermint Patty	retires the Kahlúa and most of the vodka	10 pours	3 months

Measure before you mix. Three of my photo estimates have already turned out wrong — the cassis, the Puntacana and the Peachtree — and every one was a dark or opaque bottle. The Mahina Coco in No. 3 is the least certain number here. Check the bottle against the recipe before you start pouring.

The batches

No. 01Bitter & spirit-forward

Dark & Bénédictine

the last of the B&B, doing something serious

Two ingredients, no citrus, nothing to measure twice. Jamaican rum has the funk and the molasses; B&B brings honey, herbs and a faintly ecclesiastical sweetness that fills the role sugar plays in an Old Fashioned. At 40% in the bottle it is the strongest thing here and the one that will still be good next spring.

Makes750 ml · one bottle · 9 pours

Keeps6 months, refrigerated

One pour82 ml (2¾ oz), stirred over ice

The batch

450 mlMyers's Original Dark

300 mlB&B

25 dashesAngostura bitters

Make & serve

Stir together, funnel, done.
Per drink: stir 82 ml with ice for 20 seconds.
Strain over one big cube. Orange peel, expressed.

ClearsB&B (finishes it)Myers's Dark Rum

Roughly 40% in the bottle, so this genuinely needs its twenty seconds on ice. It is also the easiest batch in the booklet — two bottles and a dasher.

If you'd ratherSweeter and lower: cut the Myers's to 350 ml and add 100 ml of Mahina Coco. Coconut and Bénédictine is a strange, good combination.

No. 02Sour & citrus

Mai Tai Base

amaretto standing in for orgeat, as it should

A real Mai Tai is rum, orange liqueur, lime and orgeat — and orgeat is just almond syrup, which means the Disaronno has been the answer all along. Bottle everything except the lime and you are ninety seconds from the best drink in this collection whenever someone asks.

Makes750 ml base · 10 drinks

Keeps6 months, cupboard or fridge

One pour75 ml base + 22 ml lime, shaken

The batch

300 mlMyers's Original Dark

200 mlBacardi Superior

150 mlDeKuyper Triple Sec

100 mlDisaronno Amaretto

Make & serve

Combine the four and bottle. No citrus goes in.
Per drink: 75 ml base, 22 ml fresh lime juice.
Shake hard with crushed ice, dump the whole thing into the glass. Mint sprig.

ClearsDisaronnoTriple SecMyers'sBacardi

Dump-style is not laziness — pouring the crushed ice in with the drink is how a Mai Tai is supposed to arrive, and it keeps diluting as you go.

If you'd ratherOut of lime? 22 ml of lemon works and tastes closer to a Fog Cutter. Do not use bottled juice for either.

No. 03Rich & tropical

Coconut Daiquiri Base

finishes the Clément, and it is the good stuff

Mahina Coco is rhum agricole with coconut macerated into it — dry, grassy, nothing like a piña colada mixer. Against clean white rum and a whisper of orange it makes a daiquiri that tastes like somewhere considerably warmer than Massachusetts in September.

Makes750 ml base · 10 drinks

Keeps6 months, cupboard or fridge

One pour75 ml base + 22 ml lime, shaken

The batch

400 mlBacardi Superior

300 mlClément Mahina Coco

50 mlDeKuyper Triple Sec

Make & serve

Bottle the three. That is the prep.
Per drink: 75 ml base, 22 ml fresh lime, 5 ml simple syrup if you like it rounder.
Shake hard, double-strain into a coupe. Lime wheel.

ClearsMahina CocoBacardiTriple Sec

⚠ Measure the Mahina Coco before you commit — the bottle is opaque and my estimate of what's left in it is the least reliable number in this booklet.

If you'd ratherWant it long? Build 75 ml over ice in a highball, 22 ml lime, top with soda. Same base, twice the drinking.

No. 04Sour & citrus

Dover Bramble Base

one bottle instead of two purple ones

You asked whether the cassis and the violette could be combined. Not as a blend — the cassis would flatten the violette entirely — but as a deliberate base they work, because the vodka gives the florals room to breathe. It comes out the colour of a bruised plum and drinks like summer.

Makes750 ml base · 10 drinks

Keeps6 months, cupboard or fridge

One pour75 ml base + 22 ml lemon, topped with soda

The batch

400 mlTito's Vodka

200 mlMathilde Cassis

150 mlCrème de Violette

Make & serve

Combine and bottle.
Per drink: shake 75 ml base with 22 ml fresh lemon and ice.
Strain into a tall glass of crushed ice, top with soda. Lemon wheel, berries if you have them.

ClearsMathilde CassisCrème de VioletteTito's Vodka

This retires both purple bottles and a third of the vodka in one go — the single most efficient shelf move left to you.

If you'd ratherSkip the soda and serve it up as a straight sour: 75 ml base, 22 ml lemon, egg white. Denser, more grown-up, still purple.

No. 05After dinner

The Beachcomber

four dying bottles, one bottle of dessert

Gubba, Rum Jumbie, the banana cream and the last of the crème de banane are all sitting at the bottom of their bottles taking up shelf space. This kills every one of them and tastes, alarmingly, like a milkshake that could drive you home. It should not work. It works.

Makes750 ml · one bottle · 10 pours

Keeps2 months, refrigerated — it contains dairy

One pour75 ml over a full glass of ice

The batch

300 mlBlue Chair Bay Banana Rum Cream

160 mlKahlúa

135 mlRum Jumbie Vanilla — all of it

80 mlCrème de Banane

75 mlGubba Silver — all of it

Make & serve

Shake everything together hard, then bottle.
Fill a rocks glass with ice and pour 75 ml over.
Grate nutmeg on top. Blend it with a scoop of ice if you want it frozen.

ClearsGubba (dead)Rum Jumbie (dead)Crème de BananeBlue Chair BayKahlúa

The only batch here with a real clock on it. Cream liqueur means two months refrigerated, not six — and it must live in the fridge from the moment you make it.

If you'd ratherMake it a Bushwacker: blend 150 ml with 60 ml cream of coconut and a cup of ice. Serves two, and it goes down like a milkshake.

No. 06After dinner

Bottled Peppermint Patty

retires the Kahlúa and most of the vodka

Unapologetically a dessert and completely unrepentant about it. No water in this one either — it is built to be poured over a full glass of ice, which does the diluting for you, with a splash of cream if the evening is going that way.

Makes750 ml · one bottle · 10 pours

Keeps3 months, refrigerated

One pour75 ml over a full glass of ice

The batch

350 mlKahlúa

250 mlS.S. Pierce Peppermint Schnapps

150 mlTito's Vodka

Make & serve

Stir together and bottle.
Pour 75 ml over a rocks glass packed with ice.
Float a spoonful of cream in the glass if you want it as a dessert.

ClearsKahlúa (finishes it)Peppermint SchnappsTito's Vodka

Cream goes in the glass, never the bottle — dairy would drop this from three months to about three days.

If you'd ratherToo sweet? Drop the Kahlúa to 250 ml and push the vodka to 250 ml. It stops being dessert and becomes a nightcap.

Appendix — what is left

21 bottles, ~6.8 litres. Confidence is my own — low means a dark or opaque bottle where the photo could not tell me much.

Bottle	Type	Size	Left	Conf.	Plan
Myers's Original Dark	Jamaican dark rum	1.75 L	960 ml	med	BULK
Bacardi Superior	White rum	1.75 L	840 ml	med	BULK
Tito's Handmade Vodka	Vodka	1.75 L	600 ml	low	BULK
Kahlua	Coffee liqueur	1 L	550 ml	low	HIGH
B&B	Herbal liqueur / brandy	750 ml	375 ml	low	HIGH
Clement Mahina Coco	Coconut liqueur (rhum agricole)	700 ml	350 ml	VERY LOW	HIGH
Blue Chair Bay Banana Rum Cream	Cream liqueur	750 ml	340 ml	med	KILL
El Dorado 12	Demerara rum	750 ml	300 ml	med	SIPPER
S.S. Pierce Peppermint Schnapps	Mint liqueur	1 L	300 ml	high	HIGH
DeKuyper Triple Sec	Orange liqueur	1 L	280 ml	high	HIGH
John L. Sullivan	Irish whiskey	750 ml	260 ml	med	SIPPER or Irish coffee
Mathilde Cassis	Blackcurrant liqueur	500 ml	225 ml	med	KILL
Campari	Bitter aperitif	1 L	220 ml	high	SPRITZ
Creme de Violette	Floral liqueur	750 ml	210 ml	med	KILL
Pastis Prado	Anise aperitif	750 ml	210 ml	high	DRINK AS PASTIS
Disaronno Amaretto	Amaretto	750 ml	165 ml	high	HIGH
Calvados Morin Selection	Apple brandy	750 ml	150 ml	high	SIPPER
Aperol	Aperitif	750 ml	135 ml	high	SPRITZ
Rum Jumbie Vanilla Splash	Flavored rum	750 ml	135 ml	high	KILL
DeKuyper Creme de Banane	Banana liqueur	1 L	120 ml	high	KILL
Gubba Silver	Coconut rum	750 ml	75 ml	high	KILL